Durfee baseball crushes New Bedford, 18-6

Sunday

Apr 28, 2013 at 12:01 AMApr 28, 2013 at 1:29 AM

The Durfee High School baseball team sent a whopping 53 batters to the plate while junior starting pitcher J.P. Bonanca hurled eight gutsy innings en route to an impressive 18-6 Big 3 romp over New Bedford on Saturday morning.

Ian Abreu

The Durfee High School baseball team sent a whopping 53 batters to the plate while junior starting pitcher J.P. Bonanca hurled eight gutsy innings en route to an impressive 18-6 Big 3 romp over New Bedford on Saturday morning.

Highlighting the offensive charge for the Hilltoppers (4-5, 1-0) were solo home runs hit by senior third baseman Jared Wages and senior right fielder Bobby Aspirino. Bonanca also helped out his own cause at the dish, going 4-for-5 while driving home four RBIs.

“I honestly can’t remember the last time we hit two home runs in a game,” Durfee head coach Brad Bustin said. “Those homers were definitely spark plugs for our offense today. It helped us get our bats going.”

Despite the final score, it was actually the Whalers (2-8, 0-1) who jumped out on the scoreboard first, pushing across three runs in the top half of the first inning. The big blow of the frame was a two-run RBI knock off the bat of senior catcher Ricky Moraes.

From that point on, Bonanca settled down on the hill, producing eight complete innings in picking up the victory. He surrendered only three earned runs while giving up 10 hits.

“After they (New Bedford) jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first, he really settled down for us out there,” Bustin said of Bonanca. “He started to take a little off his curveball and was changing speeds nicely. I think he did a good job of mixing things up.”

The biggest offensive display of the morning for the Toppers came in the home half of the second inning, when they sent 11 players to the plate in registering six runs across the board to blow matters open at 7-3.

Sophomore catcher Alex Benevides and junior first baseman Justin Martinho (3-for-4) each drove in runs during the inning. The other big blow of the stanza came from Wages, whose towering homer sailed well over the left field fence and brought the Durfee faithful in attendance to their feet.

It was a tough day on the bump for New Bedford junior starter J.T. Sylvia, as he lasted only 1 2/3 innings, giving up five earned runs while walking a pair.

Over the course of the next three innings, Durfee recorded six unanswered runs to make the affair a blowout at 13-3. During that stretch, Bonanca picked up three run-scoring singles, senior center fielder Josh Campanelli smacked in a two-run RBI single and Aspirino tomahawked a solo shot.

Visiting New Bedford tried to make matters a little more respectable in the top half of the seventh, when a two-run RBI single by junior right fielder Nick Berhantim cut the deficit to eight at 14-6.